Monday, September 23, 2013

Venice: Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
– Le Stanze del Vetro: Napoleone Martinuzzi Venini 1925-1931.Now on it’s third exhibition, theStanze del Vetro, the beautiful new museum dedicated to glass on the magical Island of San
Giorgio, that looks across the Bacino di San Marco towards the Piazza, the
exhibition Napoleone Martinuzzi Venini 1925-1931 (until December 1st) curated by Marino Barovier. During
his collaboration with Paolo Venini, Martinuzzi designed beautiful objects
whose shapes were inspired by classical design, but also involved the use of
innovative techniques and glass paste. The exhibition reconstructs his whole
production chronologically: from elegant transparent blown glass to works with
an unprecedented opaque texture, from the experiments with pulegoso glass (a
semi-opaque or translucent glass with a rough surface due to tiny bubbles
formed by using special ingredients) to pieces with deep, dense colors.

Above 1: a photograph of Napeoleone
Martinuzzi besides a marble bas-reliefs for the Memorial to the Fallen of
Murano, 1920s. Napoleone Martinuzzi, an artist held in high esteem by poet
Gabriele d’Annunzio, became a partner of Paolo Venini in 1925. In his capacity
as the artistic director of V.S.M. Venini & C. he designed marvelous
objects until 1931. After devising elegant clear blown glass objects, the
artist went on to explore previously unseen matter like bubble glass and opaque
glass in intense and solid colors. In so doing Martinuzzi designed a wide
repertoire of vases, cups, lights, and peculiar decorative objects like fruits,
colored glass creatures and succulent plants, some of which were monumental in
size.

Napoleone Martinuzzi: Transparent
Glass - 1925-1931. Transparent blown glass was a typical and almost exclusive
product of Murano glassworks until about 1928, when the first opaque glass,
that was soon to become extremely popular, was produced. Most of the glass
designed by Napoleone Martinuzzi in his capacity as the Artistic Director of
V.S.M. Venini & C. consisted of clear and transparent vases, cups and
goblets, devised between 1925 and 1927. In his production he would mainly focus
on volumes, and his items are often larger than the real-life model and/or
feature open-mold ribbing, waists or applied glass-thread decoration. He also
relied on ancient decoration techniques as meza stampaura and filigrana, which
by the way earned him enthusiastic feedback at the 3rd Monza Biennale.

Napoleone Martinuzzi Venini
1925-1931. The around 200 works on display in the exhibition are representative
of the most significant stages in the glass art of the ingenious sculptor from
Murano. Many of these works were presented at the Venice Biennale from 1926 to
1930 and at major exhibitions of decorative arts, such as the Biennale and the
Triennale in Monza. 1930 was a significant year in the history of Venini:
thanks to Martinuzzi’s talent, the Venini production was noted for the singular
richness of the works shown at these important exhibitions. They ranged from
classical transparent pieces to a collection of pulegoso glass with an archaic
feel, the striking aquariums, the brightly colored velato vases, the cacti and
the colorful “bestiary”.

Napoleone Martinuzzi Venini
1925-1931. The exhibition also explores the relationship between Martinuzzi and
the poet Gabriele d’Annunzio, who commissioned the Murano artist to make not
only sculptures but also works in glass. To illustrate their special bond and
the artistic vision shared by these two personalities, the exhibition includes
a reconstruction of one of the rooms in the Vittoriale by stage designer Pierluigi
Pizzi, with some of the most significant works that Martinuzzi designed for the
poet. They include a bright pumpkin made of incamiciato glass (the glass is
covered by a second thin layer of different colored glass), which Martinuzzi
designed specially for D’Annunzio’s residence, a vase with large ribbed
handles, a large basket with fruit, a transparent blue glass cup and an
elephant made of red vitreous paste.

Photograph courtesy Le Stanze del
Vetro

Napoleone Martinuzzi Venini
1925-1931. Other particularly interesting items in Martinuzzi’s production for
Venini include the series of fruit and vegetables that he designed from 1926
on. They were based on natural models including poppy fruits and sprouts and
common vegetables (tomatoes, onions etc.).

Photograph courtesy Le Stanze del
Vetro

Napoleone Martinuzzi Venini
1925-1931. A personal interpretation of a theme fashionable in the late 1920s,
were these works on a monumental scale and designed to be placed in public
spaces as polychrome glass sculptures. One example is the succulent plant made
of pulegoso glass, now in the Palazzo delle Poste, Bergamo. Itis displayed to illustrate the taste of an
entire period.

Photograph courtesy Le Stanze del
Vetro

Napoleone Martinuzzi Venini
1925-1931. The exhibition includes a selection of period photographs and
original drawings both of glass pieces and some monumental glass sculptures,
such as the “statue” of a Dancer (1928) and the succulent plants shown at the
first Quadriennale d’Arte di Roma (1931).

Monday, September 16, 2013

Venice -
Island of San Giorgio Maggiore – Normadic Encounters.Swiss artist, nomad and explorer Not Vital
gave a talk Normadic Encounters at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Onlus. Marking
his presentation of the monumental installation '700 Snowballs' at Le Stanze del Vetro, until September 29, concurrently with the Art Biennale 2013, Not
Vital talked about his experiences with craftsmen from all over the globe, the relationships
that developed over decades of travel and the works of art created as a result
of these collaborations.

Normadic
Encounters. Not Vital maintains a continuing interest in engaging with
indigenous makers of countries he visits: from the Tuaregsilver craftsmen of
Niger to the marble carvers of Lucca and of course, the Venetian glass
craftsmen of Murano - with whom '700 Snowballs' was created.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Lido: Venice 70: Golden Lion for
Best Film – Sacro GRA. The Golden Lion for Best Film went to Gianfranco Rosi
for his film Sacro GRA. The 70th Venice
International Film Festivalwas directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia and chaired by Paolo Baratta. The jury was chaired by Bernardo Bertolucci and comprised of Andrea Arnold, Renato Berta, Carrie Fisher, Martina Gedeck, Jiang Wen,
Pablo Larraín, Virginie Ledoyen,and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia – foto ASAC

Gianfranco
Rosi winner of the Golden Lion for Best Film, Sacro GRA.

Venice 70:Coppa Volpi for Best Actress.The Coppa Volpi for Best Actress went to
Elena Cotta for Emma Dante’s film Via Castellana Bandiera (see below).

Venice 70:Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young
Actor – Tye Sheridan.The Marcello
Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor went to Tye Sheridan who plays besides
Nicholas Cage in David Gordon Green’s film Joe.

Venice 70: Special Jury Prize – Die
Frau des Polizisten (The Police Officer’s Wife).The Special Jury prize went to the film – Die
Frau des Polizisten (The Police Officer’s Wife), Philip Groning directed,
wrote, produced and was the director of photography on the film, he is
photographed above with the cast.

Die Frau des Polizisten (The Police
Officer’s Wife).Uwe, (David
Zimmerschied) is a policeman in a provincial German town. When we watch him at
work, it is often in the surrounding countryside. Yet this is no tale of
bucolic loveliness. Uwe beats his wife Christine (Alexander Finder) with an
intensity and frequency that builds throughout the film’s 175 minutes until the
inevitable and tragic denouement. Initially, though, Gröning shows a happy
family, the couple with their young daughter Clara out hunting Easter eggs in
the woods or eating and laughing together in the kitchen.The film is broken up into 59 chapters.

*Chiara Dal
Canto returns to the cinema, after a career in the world of design journalism.

Courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia – foto ASAC

Venice 70: Orizzonti Award for Best
Director – Uberto Pasolini. The Orizzonti Award for Best Director went to
Uberto Pasolinifor his film Still
Life. Above the producer, writer and director sits between his stars Eddie
Marsan and Joanne Froggatt.

Venice 70: Nice Girls Don’t Stay for
Breakfast (work in progress) – Bruce Weber.Photographer and film director Bruce Weber’s work in progress, Nice
Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast, about Robert Mitchum was followed by his 1988
his Oscar-nominated film Let’s get Lost about jazz’s great Chet Baker.

Venice 70: Venezia 70 Future Reloaded.In celebration of the 70th Venice International Film Festival, the Biennale di Venezia has created the
special project Venezia 70 Future Reloaded.70
movie directors from all over the world have been invited to make a short film lasting between 60 and 90 seconds,
in total creative freedom. The invitation has been accepted by great maestros,
well-known directors, and young filmmakers of recognized talent. All have
participated at the Venice Film Festival at least once over the past twenty
years. Future Reloaded is both a
collective movie tribute to the Festival (the world’s first film festival to
celebrate its 70th edition) and a reflection on the future of cinema, as
filtered through the personal artistic insight of each of the participating
directors.

Man of the moment, James Franco director
of Child of God at the press conference with the star Scott Haze.

Venice 70:Lion of the Future –
“Luigi De Laurentiis” – Venice Award for Debut Film.- Noaz Deshe. The prize Lion of the
Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” went to Noaz Deshe for his film White Shadow, as
well as a prize of 100,000$, donated by Filmauro
diAurelio e Luigi De
Laurentiis to be divided equally between the director and the producers.
The movie was produced by Francesco Melzi d’Eril and Ginevra Elkann in the
photo with the director and also Eva Riccabono, Ryan Gosling, Stefano
Gallini-Durante, amongst others, the producers list reads literally like a talented young who’s Who.

Venice 70: Photo Call. The photographers who actually got a “Maccaroni”, a special pass that grants you
access to the Photo Call room!

Venice 70 – Locke.Locke
is the wonderful second film from UK writer-director Steven Knight and Tom
Hardy plays Ivan Locke. Locke is the story of one man’s life unravelling in a
tension-fuelled 90-minute race against time. Ivan Locke has the perfect
family, his dream job, and tomorrow should be the crowning moment of his
career. But one phone call will force him to make a decision that will put it
all on the line.